Pretty Neon Colors

I have a couple more pictures from fashionation to share.

These pictures are by photographer Paco Peregrin from Spain.

Paco originally studied drawing, painting, and communication before turning to photography and I love how he uses his traditional art skills in his photos!

I wish I could have hair and makeup like this everyday.

122 Days

I don't think I ever posted any pictures of my "finished" living area. It'll always be a work in progress, but right now I'm satisfied with where it's at. I think it looks much cozier and homier than when I first moved in four months ago.

Antiques, Ikea, and So You Think You Can Dance.

I can't help it, they're my favorite...

Coldplay has a new music video for their latest single Strawberry Swing. I'm not usually one to share music videos, but this one is really cute!

It features stop motion animation of a man (Chris maybe? You can never see his face) going through a sweet imaginary chalk drawing dream sequence.

Here's a screenshot.

The video isn't on youtube yet, but you can view it here on Coldplay's website.

DIY Antique Frame Update

I bought this antique frame a few months ago with the plans of redoing it.

The frame has great shape and details, but the gold paint wasn't working for me. Plus, whoever painted it gold didn't do the best job and left a lot of big drips.

I finally spent a few hours an evening last week on the frame. I sanded it down (turns out before it was gold, it was a beige-pink-white-ish color) to get rid of the dents and paint drips. After many many coats of a glossy black paint, it's looking great!

I bought a vintage National Geographic map of Central America from the 1970s on etsy and fit it behind the frame. There isn't any glass (or way of putting in glass), so i just taped the map to the back of the frame.

I used some more of my favorite Command3 strips to hang it against the concrete wall in my apartment.

I'm really happy with how it turned out!

New treasures

Thanks to a tip from my friend Denise, I found some great used furniture a couple days ago!

Isn't this beautiful? I love anything mid-century modern, especially with Danish influences, and this buffet is perfect for me. There's a stamp on the back that says "Chestnut Walnut", which I'm guessing means a chestnut stain on walnut wood, though I'm not sure exactly how much of the buffet is real wood. Either way, it looks great.

I've wasted no time filling the buffet up! I decided to put all my textiles and supplies in it (before they were just in various plastic bags in my closet) as I've been meaning to find a neat way of organizing them for a while now. Inside the main doors is my fabrics.

The top drawer houses all my sewing, knitting and crocheting accessories. Needles, thread, measuring tapes, pins, etc.

The middle drawer is home to all my yarns. It's just the right size to hold them.

The bottom drawer holds a crocheting blanket project that's been in the works for a few years now.

While we were picking up the buffet, I noticed another piece behind it and couldn't help but ask if it was for sale also. To my delight, it was! And for only $20!

I'm not too sure what you call these... chair-phone tables? I have no idea. But I think it's really charming, and it fits in perfectly in my entryway. I may end up putting new fabric on the seat at some point, but for now I think it's fine as is.

Sewing again

A few weeks ago I braved a new world of sewing - clothing! Sewing clothes is a lot more noticable if you mess up than a pillowcase, so I was a bit nervous to try it out.

I found a really easy free "pattern" at this neat website called BurdaStyle where pretty much all you do is measure your waist, do some math about circles, and make a giant circle with a hole out of it in the middle the size of your waist and then sew on a waistband.

(excuse the crappy quality, they were taken with my iMac with the 3 second timer)

I'm really happy with the results. I changed up the "pattern" a little in that I made it shorter (the original pattern went just below the knee) and I didn't have the belt hardware they used in the waist, so I used a zipper and eyelet hook.

A minor problem I have with it is that any gust of wind makes it fly up. I heard that you can sew fishline into the hem to help weight it down, but at this point I'm fine with it as it is.

Having success with this has definitely made me more confident in sewing garments. Maybe I'll try a dress next if I can find a cute pattern!